Frequency Synthesizers in Nanometer CMOSDirect Digital Synthesis (DDS) ROM DAC LPF t ttt Frequency...

R. Bogdan Staszewski, DCAS Seminar, 21 Feb 2007 1

R. Bogdan Staszewski

IEEE Dallas CAS Chapter

Frequency Synthesizers in Nanometer CMOS


Outline

• RF frequency synthesis fundamentals– Motivation for digitally-intensive PLL

• New paradigm in nanometer-scale CMOS• All-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL)• ADPLL wideband frequency modulation• Conclusion


Frequency Synthesis in Radio Transceivers


• Local oscillator (LO) is needed in every radio TX and RX– Irrespective of the architecture

• Needed to translate RF frequency down to IF or baseband (in RX) and vice versa (in TX)

• LO has to be tunable across the RF wanted frequency band and the frequency resolution has to be at least equal to the channel spacing

• Frequency synthesizer is used as LO• RF frequency synthesizers remain one of the most

challenging blocks in mobile wireless communication systems

Local Oscillator in a Radio Transceiver


Local Oscillator

• Frequency reference (FREF) source usually built as tunable crystal oscillator (XO)– Voltage-controlled temperature-compensated XO (VCTCXO)

• External module; expensive (~$1)– Digitally-controlled XO (DCXO)

• Requires external XTAL (~$0.2)– MEMS resonators

• Emerging technology• Three major frequency synthesis techniques:

– Direct-analog (error correction process is avoided)– Direct-digital– Indirect or phase-locked loop


Phase Noise in Oscillators

))(cos()( ttAtv c φω +⋅=)cos()( φω +⋅= tAtv c ttAtAtv cc ωφω sin)(cos)( ⋅⋅−⋅≈

2)(

)(ω

ω φΔ

=ΔS

L

• Ideal oscillator: power concentrated at ωc– Dirac pulse in frequency domain

• Real oscillator: phase is time-varying– Spectrum will exhibit “skirt” around the carrier frequency

Single side band noise

cc

Ideal Oscillator Practical Oscillator

1-Hz bandwidth

vv


Phase Noise Profile• 1/ω0: thermal noise added to the clock outside of the oscillator

proper; does not affect the oscillation time base• 1/ω2: upconverted thermal (AWGN) noise; caused by

uncorrelated timing fluctuations in the period of oscillation; modeled as random walk

• 1/ω3: upconverted flicker (1/f) noise; significant in thin-oxide MOS transistors

• RF oscillator phase noise spectrum exhibits three regions

R. Bogdan Staszewski, DCAS Seminar, 21 Feb 2007 8cm

carrierv

c m c m

noise sidelobes

Oscillator Spurious Tones

))(cos()( ttAtv c φω +⋅=)sin()( tt mp ωφφ ⋅=

])cos()[cos(2

cos)( ttA

tAtv mcmcp

c ωωωωφ

ω +−+⋅⋅

+⋅≈

• Periodic (systematic) content in the phase noise will exhibit itself as undesired spurious tone sidelobes upconverted around the carrier

Phase noise spectrum

Voltage spectrum


LO in Transmitter

Tail phase noise of the TX might corrupt weak detected signal from other TX

Interferer


LO in Receiver

Interferer

WantedSignal

Interferer LO

c

IF

skirt

Signal due to conversion of the

interferer

IF

noise

Signal due to conversion of the

wanted signal


Synchronization of a Mobile Station• LO needs to be accurate and stable to 0.1 ppm

– i.e., 200 Hz at 2 GHz• Crystal’s inaccuracy more than 10 ppm• Mobile station uses base station for synchronization

– Automatic frequency control (AFC)• => Reference frequency typically needs to be tunable


• Phase noise performance• Discrete spurious noise performance• Switching speed – for channel hopping, sleep modes• Frequency and tuning range – operational band plus PVT

margin• Power consumption – battery operated mobile devices• Size – mass production deployment• Integrateability – integrate with digital logic and memory• Cost – no extra cost added to the process; minimal count of

external components• Testability – low testing costs; built-in self test (BIST)• Portability – ability to transfer the design from one application

to another and from one process to another

Frequency Synthesizer Ranking


Frequency Synthesis Types


Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS)

ROM DAC LPF

t t t t

Frequency Control Word

(FCW)

Phase Accumulator

output

time-sampledphase

time-sampledamplitude

time-continuousamplitude

Frequency Reference

Clock(FREF)

• Digitally constructs the desired signal– Amplitude, frequency and phase

are known and controlled at all times

• Not entirely digital– Requires DAC and LPF

• Not feasible at GHz frequencies– Clock has to be at least 3x of the

output frequency

• Developed by Tierney [1] in 1970s

PhaseFCW

Phase Accumulator

FCW(data)

FCW(channel)

FREF


Indirect Synthesis: Charge-pump PLL• Phase difference estimated in PFD by measuring time difference between

fref and fdiv closest edges, hence fundamentally slow acquisition• Frequency acquisition time is proportional to the initial Δf / fBW• Disadvantage: slow acquisition and difficult to integrate

– Difficult to integrate: VCO and large charge-pump caps• Conflict in frequency switching time and suppression of spurs• Only suitable for narrowband transmit modulation

• PFD produces current pulse Ip with prop. duty cycle

• Loop filter converts the current into a VCO tuning voltage

• C2 is an integrating capacitor and puts a pole at dc

PFD

Phase/Frequency Detector

VCO

Voltage-controlledOscillator

Tuning voltage

Frequency Divider

UP

DOWN

Charge Pump

C2C1

R1

Loop Filter FVCOFREF IP

FDIV

INref

(fdiv)

vco


Fractional-N Synthesizer

Spur reduction techniques:• Analog compensation

schemes – phase interpolation

• Sigma-Delta modulator

• Frequency tones (spurs) due to repetitive phase shift

• Easy to predict in a digital manner --accumulator

Kingsford-SmithUS patent 3,928,8131974 (filing date)


Sigma-Delta Fractional-N Divider

z-1

.f(k)OV3

b(t) = Ndiv(k)z-1

OV2OV1

+-

+ +

+-

z-1

z-1z-1

ΣΔ modulator shapes the quantization error energy into higher frequencies which are then easy to filter out

RileyUS patent 4,965,5311989 (filing date)

WellsUS patent 4,609,8811984 (filing date)


Hybrid of DDS and PLL• DDS combined with PLL• DDS operates at lower frequency: wideband modulation and

fast channel hopping capability• PLL used as frequency multiplier to up-convert the DDS

output to RF band• Used in basestations

– Fast settling time

clk

DDS RF


Motivation for (All?)-Digital PLL• Frequency synthesizers in commercial wireless applications

traditionally use charge-pump PLL’s• No prior reports on successful low-cost synthesizer

architectures for mass-market mobile communications employing all-digital approach

• Design flow and circuit techniques are analog intensive

ref

div

vco

• Technology incompatible with modern digital baseband processors– Use low-voltage

nanoscale CMOS


Phase Domain Operation• Charge-pump PLL does not truly operate in the

phase domain: only approximation under lock– [2: Gardner’80] describes: “converting the timed logic

levels into analog quantities”– Generates reference spurs that require filter

• Consequence: tradeoff between the reference spur level and settling time

• No such tradeoff with true phase-domain operation– See [3: Kajiwara’92]


Preview: All-Digital PLL• Charge-pump

PLL:• Suffers from

reference spurs

• Tradeoff: bandwidth against spur level

FREF CKVPhase error

Variable phase

Reference phase

Tune

R V

Phase/Frequency Detector VCO

Tuning voltage

Frequency Divider

UP

DOWN

Charge Pump

Loop FilterFREF

R V

• All-digital PLL:• True phase

domain operation

• (Details to come…)


Nanoscale CMOS


90nm

DRP™

90nm • SoC Integration Includes:– RF– Analog– Power management– Digital baseband– SRAM– Processors– Software

• Most advanced process technology used to maximize integration while minimizing cost

– 90nm (shipping) – 65nm (mature design) – 45nm and beyond

(preliminary)

• 2x area reduction each process technology node

• RF/analog is 20-30% of SoC

SoC Drives Cost Reduction

65nm65nm

45nm


Why Single-Chip Radio?• "Integration is like gravity”

– Already happened in hard-disk drives, ADSL, etc

– Not a single example of reversal

• “$20 phones”• Large untapped market in

India and China• More “real estate” space for

advanced features• Better reliability

– Today, more than half of the total components on a board are analog RF components

• Longer talk time


Technology Trends for 45 nm CMOS• 45 nm doubles transistor density over 65 nm and quadruples

over 90 nm technology– To support more standards, radios and multimedia in mobile phones

• Smaller transistor capacitances hence lower power dissipation

• Nominal supply voltage of 1.1 V; ranging from 0.9 V to 1.2 V• SRAM size of 0.24 um2 optimized for size• Conventional gate stack of nitrided silicon dioxide and

polysilicon gate– Metal gate only for high-performance process (SUN Sparc)

• No high-k dielectric– Very little performance gain compared with higher complexity and cost

• New package technology– Stacked die for embedding of large memories– Dies embedded in a board to maximize space and performance


Nanoscale CMOS Technology Trends• Variability of minimum size devices gets worse with each

process node• Source: ISSCC 04, Microprocessor Forum, p29

Relative Gate Length (CD) Variation Relative NMOS Vth Variation


New Paradigm

In a highly-scaled CMOS technology, time-domain resolution of a digital signal edge transition is superior to voltage resolution of analog signals


Rules of nm-Scale CMOS• Exploit:

– Fast switching characteristics of MOS transistors• 20 ps transition and fT of 250 GHz in 45-nm CMOS• Improves 20% per process node (18—24 months)

– Small device geometries and precise device matching– High density of digital logic: 1 Mgates/mm2 in 45-nm

CMOS• 2x scaling at each process node (18—24 months)

– High density of SRAM memory: 4 Mbits/mm2 in 45-nm CMOS

• Avoid:– Biasing currents for analog circuits– Reliance on voltage resolution– Nonstandard devices not needed for memory and logic


Trend towards Digitization (e.g.#1)• (Example)• A/D => ACCUM => D/A• Gets rid of the large leaky integrating capacitor

– Leakage acts like an additional resistor• Integrating pole stays at zero

Perrott et alUS patent 6,630,8682001 (filing date)


Mitigation through Architecture (e.g.#1)

• (Example)• DPLL in 90-nm• Uses TDC for phase

detection• Digital loop filter

TDC

Digital loop filter

• [8: Lin’04]• Also see

– [5: Dunning’95]


• Using multiple equally-spaced phases generated from a VCO to synthesis various frequency and phase, by triggering the flip-flops at predestined time

• Principle idea: see diagram below (just the principle).• [9 – L. Xiu]

Flying-Adder Frequency/Phase Synthesis


• An example: – VCO at 156.25 MHz (6.4 ns) →Δ = 6.4/32 = 0.2 ns (assume N=32)– Wanted: 204.08 MHz, or T = 4.9 ns →FREQ[9:0] = T/(2Δ) = 4.9/0.4 =

12.25 = 01100.01000b– Integer portion is used for selecting tick, fractional portion is for

accumulation.

000000

1201100

2411000

400100

1710001

2911101

00000.00000+ 01100.01000

01100.01000

01100.01000+ 01100.01000

11000.10000

11000.10000+ 01100.01000

00100.11000

00100.11000+ 01100.01000

10001.00000

10001.00000+ 01100.01000

11101.01000

12 12 13 1212

MUX Address

Flying-Adder Frequency/Phase Synthesis


All-Digital Phase-Locked Loop

R V

Frequency reference

Frequency command word

Variable frequency

FCW


Simple Idea of Phase Domain• Construct expected or ideal timestamps

– “Reference phase”

• Measure the actual timestamps– “Variable phase”

• Their difference is the time error– Used for future timing corrections as negative feedback

Expected timestamps

Actual timestamps

t[1] t[2] t[3] t[4]

tNoise pdf Error as

correction


Issues with the Simple Idea• Synthesized (variable) frequency is typically much higher

than the reference frequency• Non-integer relationship• How to truly operate in time domain, i.e., “timestamps”?


Proposed Solution• Reference and variable signals are digital clocks

– Use only their (rising) edges

• Phase error calculation to be performed on reference edges• Turn the phase detection problem around

– Measure the reference timestamps with the variable clock– Sample the count of variable clock cycles with each reference edge– If variable phase drifts, their sampled count will get affected

R R R R

Reference

Variable (nom)

Variable (early)

Variable (late)


Hardware Needed for Digital Operation• Accumulator of FCW• Interpolator or normalize estimator of edge separation

– Time-to-digital converter (TDC)

• RF oscillator needs to be numerically controlled:– Digitally-controlled oscillator (DCO)

• Digital phase detector and loop filter


Digitally-Controlled Oscillator (DCO)ΣΔ Modulator and DCO InterfaceTime-to-Digital Converter (TDC)

Digital Loop Filter (LF)All-Digital PLL (ADPLL)

ADPLL Wideband Frequency Modulation


MOS Varactor• Only simplest varactors

in the digital CMOS• Perceived poor quality of

varactors in a nanoscale CMOS for conventional VCO’s

• Conventional CMOS varactors– Large linear range for precise and wide frequency control

• Nanometer CMOS varactor– Linear range is compressed with high noise sensitivity


Digital Tuning of DCO• A large linear varactor in conventional VCO replaced

with a large number of tiny binary-controlled varactors in a digitally-controlled oscillator (DCO)– Smallest varactor size: tens of atto-farad

• Deliberate avoidance of any analog tuning• The feedback loop could now be fully digital


DCO Core• 3.2—4 GHz range

• No analog tuning controls– V_tune_high and V_tune_low

set to two flat operating points of the C-V curve

tune_low

tune_high

T1

x

1

varactors

b

2

00

GND

1A

VDD1B

T2

0

x


DCO Varactor Functional Banks• Process/voltage/temperature (PVT) calibration mode• Acquisition mode (during channel select)• Tracking mode (during the actual TX and RX)

– Dithering to improve resolution

dk C0

ΔC

Varactor model:


GSM Bands• Single oscillator covers four GSM bands

– ÷2/÷4 clock division

824 849 869 894

880 915 925 960

GSM 850

E-GSM 900

1710 1785 1805 1880DCS 1800

820-MHz 840 900860 880

1850 1910 1930 1990PCS 1900

1640

920

1680 1720 1760 1800 1840

940

1880

960

1920

980

1960

1000

2000

-25- -25-

-35-

-75- -75-

-60- -60-

-35-

3280 3360 3440 3520 3600 3680 3760 3840 3920 4000DCO core:

935890

(EU)

(US)

(EU)

(US)

ext ext


DCO ASIC Cell

• Truly digital I/O’s even at 1.8 GHz output – tr


Digitally-Controlled Oscillator (DCO)ΣΔ Modulator and DCO Interface

Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC)Digital Loop Filter (LF)All-Digital PLL (ADPLL)



DCO Varactor Dithering Principle• Frequency resolution enhanced by high-speed

dithering of the finest varactors• Produces spurious tone at the oscillator output with

power inversely proportional to the dithering speed– Spur power = -20 log(β/2) [dBc], where β is a

dimensionless ratio of the peak frequency deviation (low) to the modulating frequency (high)

– e.g., β = 12 kHz / 225 MHz => -91 dBc spur

1

2


Sigma-Delta DCO Dither• Improves time-averaged DCO frequency resolution

over the basic Δf = 12 kHz– New resolution: 12 kHz / 28 = 47 Hz

7 Thermometer encoding

128RF out

3

FREF

Tuningword

fract. bits

integer bits

fract. average

value

(~225 MHz)

7

8

15

8

(26 MHz)


ΣΔ Modulator• 2nd order MASH structure• Inspired by [4] (Riley’93)

– Critical path retimed for high-speed operation• Addition of ΣΔ polynomial inside the DCO

1

2

[13: TCAS-II Nov’03]


Simulation Example of ΣΔ DCO Dither

• Fixed-point DCO tuning word

• Red: Integer DCO input word

• Black: running average– Faithful

reproduction of the input!

• 2nd order MASH ΣΔ Modulator

Input

Output


DCO Quantization Noise Derivation

2

sinc11)( ⎟⎟⎠

⎞⎜⎜⎝

⎛ Δ⎟⎟⎠

⎞⎜⎜⎝

⎛Δ

Δ12

=Δ2

dithdith

res

ff

ffffL

n

dithdith

res

ff

ffffL

2

sin211)( ⎟⎟⎠

⎞⎜⎜⎝

⎛ Δ⎟⎟⎠

⎞⎜⎜⎝

⎛Δ

Δ12

=Δ2

πPN due to ΣΔ:

Phase noise (PN) due to white dither:

12Δ

=Δ2

2 resf

fσdith

res

dith

ff

ff

fS

⋅Δ

== ΔΔ122

22σTotal Q-noise power: Q-noise spectrum:

[17: JSSC Nov’05]

PN is frequency shaped!


Theoretical Phase Noise Spectra

Δf = 12 kHz• fR = 26 MHz• fdith = 225

MHz• 2nd order ΣΔ• Quantization

noise energy at high-freq.

[17: JSSC Nov’05]


Measured DCO Phase Noise

-165 dBc/Hz at 20 MHz offset

Eliminates SAW filter

915 MHz

No degradation due to ΣΔ dithering


Dynamic Element Matching• Unit-weighted varactors have slightly different capacitative

values• As capacitors are turned on and off, non-linearities will be

evident in the output• Dynamic element matching (DEM) to improve digital-to-

frequency conversion linearity

Progression of time (shown 8 cycles)

8x8 varactor encoding matrix:


Synchronously-Optimal Sampling

Delay line adjustment

DIV

Tuning word

1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800-68

-67.5

-67

-66.5

-66

-65.5

-65

-64.5

-64

-63.5

-63Phase noise at 400 kHz offset vs flyback delay

Flyback delay [ps]

Pha

se n

oise

[dB

]

• DCO is a time-variant system• Digital input controls the oscillating

frequency by modifying the total capacitance

• Oscillator input word changes only at precise DCO state where it causes least amount of perturbations

Measured PN vs. round-trip delay


Normalized DCO

rfKKffK R

DCO

DCORnDCO ⋅== ˆ)(• KDCO is dependent upon PVT

• KDCO therefore is tracked and normalized• Decouples the phase and frequency info from

process, voltage and temperature

DCO

R

DCO

nDCO

V v


Digitally-Controlled Oscillator (DCO)ΣΔ Modulator and DCO Interface Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC)




Time-to-digital Converter (TDC)• Quantized phase detector with resolution of about 20 ps• DCO clock passes through the inverter chain• Delayed outputs are sampled by FREF


TDC Core Implementation• Novel pseudo-differential architecture• Insensitive to NMOS and PMOS mismatches• TDC resolution close to an inverter delay

– 15 – 20 ps– Fastest logic-level regenerative delay in CMOS

EN

Cell #1 #2 #3 #48

Q(1) Q(48)Q(2) Q(3)


0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 800

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

Data - Clock [ps]

Clk

-Q [p

s]

Flipflop Metastability Curve

MN1 MN2

High-Resolution Flip-Flop• Adapted from [Nikolic, JSSC’00]• Symmetric along the vertical axis• Identical resolution of rising and falling edges• Light input loading

MN6

MN3 MN4

MP1 MP4MP2 MP3

QbQ

D

CLK

D

VDD

Pulse Generator

Slave Latch

• Simulated metastability


0 5 10 15 200

5

10

15

20

CKV to FREF delay [LSB]

Cod

e

TDC transfer function

• Only even-odd nonlienarity

FREF

Measured TDC Transfer Function

TDCCKV

Dec

ode

tr


TDC Normalization

• Accurate calibration of the inverter delay

Pseudo-Thermometer Code Detector

(rise)(fall)5 5

V invPeriod

normalizationmultiplier V inv

F

Q(1) Q(48)

D*(1) D(48)

][11

kTN

T VN

kavgV

avg

∑=

=

invV

W

tT

F

Δ=−

/2ε

• Expected output between 0.0 – 1.0 UI


TDC System• Extended dynamic range• Resampler needed to

avoid metastability


TDC-Based All-Digital PLL• TDC replaces the conventional PFD and charge pump• TDC measures the actual FREF timestamps• FCW is a fixed-point frequency multiplication ratio• FREF timestamps compared with accumulated FCW


Phase Noise Due to TDC

• In-band phase noise at RF output [TCAS-II’06]

RV

inv

ftL 1⋅⎟⎟

⎠

⎞⎜⎜⎝

⎛Τ

Δ12

)=

22π2(

– E.g., Δtinv=20ps, fv=1.8GHz, fR=26MHz, L = -97.8dBc/Hz– Good enough for GSM: can get only better


Type-II Loop Filter

QD0

1

2

2

E

• No correlative detection spurs• Software programmed PLL loop:

– Gentle transition of type-I to type-II• Two “knobs” α, ρ


Loop filter with IIR Filtering• 4th order digital IIR loop filter to suppress the

frequency reference and TDC quantization noise • Unconditionally stable IIR filter

E

( )∏= −−3

0 1i ii

zz

λλ

2

Q

Single-pole IIR stage:][]1[)1(][ kxkyky ⋅+−⋅−= λλ


All-Digital PLL (ADPLL)• Phase domain operation• Digitally synchronous fixed-point arithmetic• Phase signals cannot be corrupted by noise

DCO

RE

CKV

Retimed FREF (CKR)

R

V

])[][(][ kkRkR VRE εϕ +−=


Modulo Arithmetic

V

E

R

V

R

0,2 (mod-2WI)

• Theoretically, reference θR and variable θV phases grow without bound θR and θV implemented in modulo arithmetic to limit wordlength: WI = 8, WF = 15

CKV clocks1 104 20 30 40

4

810

14

0 1 2 3 4

4

810

14

e.g., N=10, modulo-16

CKR clocks

RR[k]

RV[i]

(no phase error)


Reference Phase Retiming• DCO clock and FREF domains are not entirely synchronous

despite being in phase lock• Variable and reference phases cannot be compared in

hardware: metastability!• Solution: Oversampling FREF by CKV and using the

resulting CKR

FREF CKR

CKV

D Q CKV

FREF

CKR

1 2 3time


Frequency Response of 2nd-order PLL

N

DCODCO

RV

E

R

• IIR filter turned off• Type-II second-order PLL loop• “knobs” α, ρ s

fsfsH RRol )()(

ρα +=


2nd-order PLL: Closed-Loop Response

22

2

)(RR

RRcl fsfs

fsfNsHρα

ρα++

+=

Rn fρω =

• Closed-loop transfer function

22

2

22)(

nn

nncl ss

sNsHωξω

ωξω++

+=

• Canonical two-pole control system

ραξ

21

=Natural frequency Damping factor


FREF/TDC Transfer Function

• Type-II 2nd order PLL

• Weak filtering

ζ=0.1, peaking

ζ=5, close to type-I

ζ=1

ζ=1/2


DCO Transfer Function

• Type-II 2nd order PLL

• 20 dB/dec– Type-I

• 40 dB/dec– Type-II

• 1/f noise attenuation

ζ=5, close to type-I

ζ=0.1, peaking

ζ=1ζ=1/2


z-Domain Model of the ADPLL

sf

sfsHsH RRiirol ⎥⎦

⎤⎢⎣⎡ ⋅+⋅=

ρα )()(

• “knobs” α, ρ, λ1-4• Type-I or Type-II PLL loop• 1st through 6th order

EV

DCO

V

R

R

DCO

R

( )∏= −−3

0 1i ii

zz

λλ


ADPLL Transfer Function• Type-II 6th-order PLL• Settings: α = 2-7, ρ = 2-15, λ = 2-[3 3 3 4]• Provides 33 dB of attenuation at 400 kHz• Provides 40 dB/dec filtering of 1/f DCO noise

FREF / TDC path DCO path


Measured Carrier Phase Noise

• 824.2 MHz carrier

• 26 MHz FREF• -92…-95

dBc/Hz in-band phase noise

• 0.5 deg rms phase noise– Spec: 5 deg

• -122 dBc/Hz @ 400 kHz

-93.4 dBc/Hz

-106.2 dBc/Hz

-121.6 dBc/Hz

-92.7 dBc/Hz


ADPLL with Zero Phase Restart

• 20 us to settle

Nor

mal

ized

tuni

ng w

ord

Latc

h


Gear Shifting of PLL Bandwidth

0 1QD1

2

E

1 2

)( 1211 φφαφα Δ+⋅=⋅

12

1 1 φααφ ⎟⎟

⎠

⎞⎜⎜⎝

⎛−=Δ

• Executed in tracking mode after the acquisition is completed

• Normalized tuning word continuity before and after the event

• Guarantees no frequency perturbation of the oscillator


PLL Modes: Close-In Phase Noise

• Gradual phase noise improvement with narrowing down the loop bandwidth

• Little improvement after second gear shift when the DCO noise predominates


Measured Trajectory during Settling• Gear shift at 23 us

0 20 40 60-5

0

5

10

15

Time [usec]

DC

O tu

ning

wor

d


Digitally-Controlled Oscillator (DCO)ΣΔ Modulator

Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC)Digital Loop Filter (LF)All-Digital PLL (ADPLL)



ADPLL with Wideband Modulation• Two-point frequency modulation

– Direct feedforward path – y[k] directly drives the DCO– Compensating path – y[k] added to the channel FCW


DCO Gain Estimation

• Estimation of RF oscillator gain is critical in low-cost high-volume transceivers– RX: sets the loop bandwidth– TX: sets transfer function of the direct frequency modulation path– Tolerated gain estimation error from less than 1% (CDMA) to several

% (GSM, Bluetooth)


−20 −15 −10 −5 0 5 10 15 200

1

2

3

4

5

6Effect of KDCO estimation error on ADPLL modulation

KDCO estimation error [%]

RM

S p

hase

err

or [d

eg]

1st IC sample2nd IC sampletheoretical

KDCO Error Effect on GSM Modulation

• Y-axis: RMS phase error [deg]

• X-axis: KDCO estimation error [%]

• KDCO estimation error of several % allowed

GSM specification

Measured

Theory: z-domain


Average M1samples

underestimate

overestimatecorrect

estimate

single-step feedforward jump

timePLL forced

frequency change

Waiting W cycles for PLL to settle

PLL settled PLL settled

Average M2samples

Just-in-time DCO Gain Estimation

OTWfKDCO Δ

Δ=ˆ

• Forces Δf through the PLL• Measures steady-state ΔOTW• Could be repeated a few times for better estimation


Measured GSM Output Spectrum

• Meets GSM spec– 8 dB margin

@ 400 kHz• Phase error

– 1o rms (5ospec)

– 3o peak (20o spec)


All-Digital Polar TX Architecture

A

Cordicand polar

signal processing

I

F

Q

s

Modulator

Modulator

• Dense logic for digital signal processing

• DCO for digital-to-frequency conversion

• DPA for digital-to-RF-amplitude conversion

Signal Attenuated replicas

sinc2f/a Replicas

s s

s s


Digitally-Controlled Power Amplifier• Array of unit-

weighted MOS switches

• Each switch contributes a conductance

• Near class-E operation

• Fine amplitude through ΣΔmodulation

• The DPA can be thought of as an RF DAC, where “A” is RF “amplitude”

ICex

tern

al


Measured EDGE Modulation

• 1.24% meets the rms EVM spec of 9%

• 3.67% meets the peak EVM spec of 30%

• Meets the spectral mask with 10 dB margin


Single-Chip GSM Radio in 90 nm

DPA

Digital logic

Discretetime

Digital logic

Front-endModule

LNAA/D

Current sampler

AMDCXO

XO• 90 nm CMOS• All-digital PLL• All-digital TX• Digitally-

intensive RX• w/o

– 2-W PA– Battery

management

VBATBattery Management


Single-Chip GSM Radio in 90 nmDRPDRP

• First single-chip GSM radio• In volume production• Logic density of 250 kgates/mm2• SRAM density of 1 Mbits/mm2

Memory

Digital

Analog

RF

DisplayConnector

Flash16Mb

AudioConnector

ChargerConnector GSM/GPRS SoC

PA

DisplayConnector

Flash16Mb

AudioConnector


PA

DisplayConnector

Flash16Mb

AudioConnector


PA


Conclusions• Survey of RF wireless frequency synthesizers• Highly-scaled CMOS is extremely unfriendly for RF

and analog designs• Radio architecture must transform voltage-domain

circuits into time-domain operation and high-speed digital logic

• All-digital PLL (ADPLL)– ADPLL features wideband frequency modulation

• All-digital and digitally-intensive architecture in nanometer CMOS can replace traditional RF circuits

• Performance demonstrated in a commercial single-chip GSM radio


General References[1] J. Tierney, C. M. Radar, B. Gold, “A digital frequency synthesizer,” IEEE Trans. on Audio Electroaccoust., vol. AU-19, pp. 48–57, Mar 1971.

[2] F. M. Gardner, “Charge-pump phase-locked loops,” IEEE Trans. on Communications, vol. COMM-28, pp. 1849–1858, Nov. 1980.

[3] A. Kajiwara and M. Nakagawa, “A new PLL frequency synthesizer with high switching speed,” Trans. on Vehicular Technology, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 407–413, Nov 1992.

[4] T. Riley, M. Copeland, T. Kwasniewski, “Delta-sigma modulation in fractional-N frequency synthesis,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 553–559, May 1993.

[5] J. Dunning, G. Garcia, J. Lundberg, E. Nuckolls, “An all-digital phase-locked loop with 50-cycle lock time suitable for high performance microprocessors,” Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 30, pp. 412–422, Apr. 1995.


General References[6] M. H. Perrott, M. D. Trott, C. G. Sodini, “A modeling approach for S-D fractional-N frequency synthesizers allowing straightforward noise analysis,”IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 37, pp. 1028–1038, Aug. 2002.[7] M. H. Perrott, R. T. Rex, and Y. Huang, “Digitally-synthesized loop filter circuit particularly useful for a phase locked loop,” US patent 6,630,868, issued Oct. 7, 2003.[8] J. Lin, B. Haroun, T. Foo, “A PVT tolerant 0.18MHz to 600MHz self-calibrated digital PLL in 90nm CMOS process,” Proc. of IEEE Solid-State Circuits Conf., sec. 26.10, pp. 488–489, 541, Feb. 2004.[9] L. Xiu, “A Novel All Digital Phase Lock Loop with Software Adaptive Filter,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 476-483, Mar. 2004.[10] A. A. Abidi, “RF CMOS comes of age,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 39, iss. 4, pp. 549–561, April 2004.[11] W. Krenik, D. Buss and P. Rickert, “Cellular handset integration – SIP vs. SOC,” Proc. of 2004 IEEE Custom IC Conf., pp. 63–70, Oct. 2004.


References on ADPLL[12] R. B. Staszewski, C.-M. Hung, D. Leipold, et al., “A first multigigahertzdigitally controlled oscillator for wireless applications,” IEEE Trans. on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 51, no. 11, pp. 2154–2164, Nov. 2003.

[13] R. B. Staszewski, D. Leipold, K Muhammad, et al., “Digitally controlled oscillator (DCO)-based architecture for RF frequency synthesis in a deep-submicrometer CMOS process,” IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems II, vol. 50, no. 11, pp. 815–828, Nov. 2003.

[14] R. B. Staszewski, K. Muhammad, D. Leipold, et al., “All-digital TX frequency synthesizer and discrete-time receiver for Bluetooth radio in 130-nm CMOS,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 39, iss. 12, pp. 2278–2291, Dec. 2004.

[15] R. B. Staszewski and P. T. Balsara, “Phase-domain all-digital phase-locked loop,” IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems II, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 159–163, Mar. 2005.


References on ADPLL[16] R. B. Staszewski, C. Fernando, and P. T. Balsara, “Event-driven simulation and modeling of phase noise of an RF oscillator,” IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems I, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 723–733, Apr. 2005.[17] R. B. Staszewski, C.-M. Hung, N. Barton, M.-C. Lee, and D. Leipold, “A digitally-controlled oscillator in a 90 nm digital CMOS process for mobile phones,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 40, no. 11, pp. 2203–2211, Nov. 2005.[18] R. B. Staszewski, J. Wallberg, S. Rezeq, et al., “All-digital PLL and transmitter for mobile phones,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 40, iss. 12, pp. 2469–2482, Dec. 2005.[19] R. B. Staszewski, S. Vemulapalli, P. Vallur, J. Wallberg, and P. T. Balsara, “1.3 V 20 ps time-to-digital converter for frequency synthesis in 90-nm CMOS,” IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems II, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 220–224, Mar. 2006.[20] R. B. Staszewski and P. T. Balsara, “All-Digital Frequency Synthesizer in Deep-Submicron CMOS,” New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2006.

OutlineLocal Oscillator in a Radio TransceiverLocal OscillatorPhase Noise in OscillatorsPhase Noise ProfileOscillator Spurious TonesLO in TransmitterLO in ReceiverSynchronization of a Mobile StationFrequency Synthesizer RankingDirect Digital Synthesis (DDS)Indirect Synthesis: Charge-pump PLLFractional-N SynthesizerSigma-Delta Fractional-N DividerHybrid of DDS and PLLMotivation for (All?)-Digital PLLPhase Domain OperationPreview: All-Digital PLLSoC Drives Cost ReductionWhy Single-Chip Radio?Technology Trends for 45 nm CMOSNanoscale CMOS Technology TrendsNew ParadigmRules of nm-Scale CMOSTrend towards Digitization (e.g.#1)Mitigation through Architecture (e.g.#1)Flying-Adder Frequency/Phase SynthesisSimple Idea of Phase DomainIssues with the Simple IdeaProposed SolutionHardware Needed for Digital OperationMOS VaractorDigital Tuning of DCODCO CoreDCO Varactor Functional BanksGSM BandsDCO ASIC CellDCO Varactor Dithering PrincipleSigma-Delta DCO DitherSD ModulatorSimulation Example of SD DCO DitherDCO Quantization Noise DerivationTheoretical Phase Noise SpectraMeasured DCO Phase NoiseDynamic Element MatchingSynchronously-Optimal SamplingNormalized DCOTime-to-digital Converter (TDC)TDC Core ImplementationHigh-Resolution Flip-FlopMeasured TDC Transfer FunctionTDC NormalizationTDC SystemTDC-Based All-Digital PLLPhase Noise Due to TDCType-II Loop FilterLoop filter with IIR FilteringAll-Digital PLL (ADPLL)Modulo ArithmeticReference Phase RetimingFrequency Response of 2nd-order PLL2nd-order PLL: Closed-Loop ResponseFREF/TDC Transfer FunctionDCO Transfer Functionz-Domain Model of the ADPLLADPLL Transfer FunctionMeasured Carrier Phase Noise ADPLL with Zero Phase RestartGear Shifting of PLL BandwidthPLL Modes: Close-In Phase NoiseMeasured Trajectory during SettlingADPLL with Wideband ModulationDCO Gain EstimationKDCO Error Effect on GSM ModulationJust-in-time DCO Gain EstimationMeasured GSM Output SpectrumAll-Digital Polar TX ArchitectureDigitally-Controlled Power AmplifierMeasured EDGE ModulationSingle-Chip GSM Radio in 90 nmSingle-Chip GSM Radio in 90 nmConclusionsGeneral ReferencesGeneral ReferencesReferences on ADPLLReferences on ADPLL

Frequency Synthesizers in Nanometer CMOSDirect Digital Synthesis (DDS) ROM DAC LPF t ttt Frequency...

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